French
Wildlife Preservation Canada
  • Home
  • Blog
  • About Us
    • 2023 Impact Report
    • About Us
    • Meet our people
    • Our donors and supporters
    • WPC in print
    • Staff Photo Contest 2024
  • Species in need
    • Birds
    • Mammals
    • Insects
    • Reptiles & Amphibians
  • Programs
    • Canada’s New Noah
    • Canadian Species Initiative
    • Birds
    • Mammals
    • Native pollinator initiative
    • Reptiles and amphibians
  • Get involved
    • Bumble Bee Community Science
    • Donate
    • Leave a Legacy
    • Give monthly
    • The Meadow
    • Work with us
  • Resources
    • Newsroom
    • Classroom Resources
    • WPC Webinars
    • Bumble Bee Resources
  • Contact
  • Donate
  • Search
  • Menu Menu
DonateGet Involved

Western Painted Turtle – Pacific Coast Population

Chrysemys picta bellii
Species Status: Endangered on the Pacific Coast of Canada
Action Required: Headstarting, conservation breeding and population augmentation

Western Painted Turtle (Chrysemys picta bellii)

The western painted turtle can live to well over 50 years old — if they can get through their infancy. With no shortage of hungry predators and no care from their parents once they have hatched, few young turtles survive to become adults. Unfortunately, humans aren’t making survival any easier, as urban development and other activities encroach on this species’ habitat.

The western painted turtle is the largest subspecies of painted turtle, with a shell that can reach approximately 25 centimetres long. It reproduces less often than painted turtles in other regions, although it lays plenty of eggs when it does. Although the eggs hatch in the fall, the hatchlings usually spend the winter hibernating in their nest chamber and emerge the following spring. Young western painted turtles feed mainly on tadpoles, insects, crayfish and snails, graduating to bigger prey like fish and frogs as they get older. To give them the energy they need for foraging and mating, these turtles will bask in the sun several times a day to raise their temperature.

Habitat

Western painted turtles prefer the shallow waters of ponds, lakes, marshes and slow-moving streams. Ideal habitats have muddy bottoms, lots of vegetation and numerous basking sites. Females lay their eggs in loose, warm, well-drained soils, which can be up to 150 metres from the water’s edge.

Range

The western painted turtle is found throughout central North America, with isolated populations in the southwestern United States and one population in Chihuahua, Mexico. In Canada, the range extends from southwest of Lake Nipigon, Ontario, across the southern portion of Manitoba and Saskatchewan to the low-lying valleys of the southern interior and south coast of British Columbia and Vancouver Island. It’s estimated that there are fewer than 250 adults in the Pacific Coast population.

Threats

Over the years, British Columbia has lost significant amounts of wetland to urban development. The western painted turtle habitat that remains faces ongoing threats from human activities that include water pollution, erosion, fragmentation and infilling. Furthermore, many females are killed on roads as they search for nesting sites. Nests and hatchlings are vulnerable to human-subsidized predators, such as raccoons, skunks and coyotes, whose numbers are artificially inflated by access to human garbage, crops and other food sources. Diseases and parasites carried by red-eared slider turtles that have been introduced to the area may also pose a danger, as does hybridization with other non-native subspecies of painted turtle that are illegally imported and released.

Recovery

Recommended Recovery Actions

Although the Pacific Coast subspecies has been officially designated as Endangered by the federal government and red-listed in British Columbia, no formal recovery strategies exist yet. A federal Recovery Strategy is expected to be posted in 2016-17, and a provincial strategy for British Columbia is currently being drafted. In the meantime, it’s important to protect and restore habitat, monitor populations and release headstarted turtles to augment those populations.

What we are doing

What is the Fraser Valley Wetlands Programs?

In the wetlands of B.C.’s Fraser Valley, western painted turtles face many challenges, especially as eggs and tiny hatchlings. With no shortage of hungry predators and no care from their parents once they’ve hatched, only a few young turtles survive to become adults. When you add human activity to the mix, the rate of survival can be so low that a population becomes unsustainable. Since 2012, we’ve been working to improve those odds. In addition to protecting nests, we collect eggs from vulnerable turtle nests, artificially incubate them and head-start new hatchlings before releasing them back into the wild.

Purpose

We work to prevent the western painted turtle from disappearing by supporting and supplementing wild populations in British Columbia, and further studying the species.

Goals

2023

In 2023 we plan to have:

  • 160 head started young turtles released to the wild in the Fraser river Valley of BC
  • 10 wild nests laid by WPC released turtles
Mid-Term

In 5-10 years we plan to have:

  • Intensive monitoring of release sites in Fraser Valley to demonstrate success of the reintroduction program
  • Headstarting and release work expanded from Fraser Valley to the Sunshine Coast and Vancouver Island
  • Local communities further engaged in conservation program and turtle releases
Long-Term

In 10-20 years we plan to have:

  • 20 sustainable wild populations established and monitored across BC with no need for further supplemental releases

Find out how Wildlife Preservation Canada helps save Canada’s reptiles and amphibians, including western painted turtles, and how you can make a difference.

Visit the project page
Western Painted Turtle

Gallery

 

Slide Title

Slide Title

Slide Title

We need your help

Donate to save endangered species
like the Western Painted Turtle

Make a donation

More articles like this

by Wildlife Preservation Canada
Where are they now?
by Andrea Gielens
B.C. programs win conservation awards
by Rachel Fallas
Borneo Diaries: The World Congress of Herpetology and Wildlife of Sarawak

© 2025 Wildlife Preservation Canada

Wildlife Preservation Canada
42 Carden St.
Guelph, ON N1H 3A2

Toll free 1 (800) 956-6608
Phone 1 (519) 836-9314
admin@wildlifepreservation.ca

Privacy and social media policy

Territory Acknowledgement

WPC is headquartered in Guelph, Ontario on the homelands of many nations, including the Anishinaabek, Neutral, Métis, Mississauga, and Haudenosaunee Confederacy, and on the treaty lands of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. We work across Turtle Island, and have deep gratitude to all the Indigenous Peoples who have been, and continue to be, stewards and protectors the lands on which we rely.

Follow us on social



Charitable Registration No.

89171 0535 RR0001

Scroll to top